Ayurveda takes a holistic view of human disease. It views any disease as a dysfunction of the whole body rather than of a single organ or physiological process. Most of the Ayurvedic drugs therefore are likely to act on a number of dysfunctions of the body involving a number of organs and functions. Gugulipid, an ethylacetate soluble fraction of gum guggul, was developed as a hypolipidemic agent, based on the reference to the lipid lowering effect of guggul resin in Charak Samhita, a classic text of Ayurveda. Chemopharmacological investigation of this extract resulted in the characterization of guggulsterone [cis-and trans-4, 17 (20)-pregnadiene-3, 16-dione] as the major constituent. Apart from guggulsterone, other chemical constituents in the ethyl acetate soluble fraction added to and modulated the total activity. This fraction rather than pure guggulsterone was developed as a hypolipidemic drug and named gugulipid. As a follow up of the holistic view of Ayurveda of human disease, gugulipid was tested for other related and unrelated conditions/dysfunction and found to possess cognitive and anti-hyperglycemic activities and also improved in general dermal dysfunctions. These novel uses of gugulipid are now claimed.